nepal_villan

35 minutes ago, ferguson1 said:

Interesting that Dean says we were probably 18 months behind where we needed to be in order to keep Jack.  
 

If we’re only 18 months behind Champions League level, I’m happy to wait.  Sounds like we definitely have the hunger and fight to reach the very top. 

Dean just put massive pressure on himself. Going forward, fans will keep circling back to this line.

Honestly, this is my concern. I worry the gap is just too far for us to close without UCL money. Means we will really have to punch above our weight for several years until sponsors look at us as a major property and ticket demand is such that we can expand the stadium and increase ticket prices.

25 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

It’s so important not to lose this for so many reasons. 

Honestly, I think this is more a fan mentality. Every year you have clubs that start slowly and finish well. West Ham after a terrible season the year before lost to Newcastle in the opener last season and eventually finished 6th.  As the cliché goes - the final table does not lie.

11 hours ago, Junxs said:

I'm Asian myself, most of my mates are Asian - pretty much all of them support the 2 clubs I mentioned.

Even the guys drive I park on matchdays, who lives is Aston, supports Liverpool.

Non of them support England either when it comes to International tournaments, I have conversations with them all the time to try to understand why this is the case.. they all have a rehearsed story why they support these 2 clubs, not a single of them admits to being a glory grabber. 

Obviously there are a few exceptions like the Punjabi Villains and a few others like me. But if you did a survey amongst Asians in Birmingham only about 5% will be Villa fans, maybe even less

Any thoughts how the club could attract more Asian fans?  

4 minutes ago, fruitvilla said:

Did you explain to her that Wiki is an encyclopaedia?

Point being someone of that generation (I realize Jack is a bit older) might not have come across the word.  

3 minutes ago, fruitvilla said:

Did you ask her what Wiki is?

She obviously knows that.  Presume Jack's been on it once or twice too.

While I'm sure there is a lot to take from this documentary and it exposes the murky world of club ownership, I can tell you that I've seen others done by Al Jazira Investigations that relate to the industry that I work in that were really embellished and edited to drive their narrative.

But it was pretty apparent that Dr. Tony was a con man. The Recon website was amateur (filled with stock photos) and there was hardly any substantive news on the web about a supposed multi-billion dollar company. We all wanted to believe...

Just asked my 12 year old what an encyclopedia is. She did not know. Guess I'll have to give Jack a pass on that.

3 minutes ago, deck said:

To cut him a bit of slack, I always took that reply ("I don't know what that means") to mean he didn't know what Dean Smith meant by calling him that, not that he didn't know what the word itself meant.

I'm just messing around. If he were still our player would be defending him to the hilt. 

3 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

He’s either getting the worst PR advice or he’s that lacking in intelligence and self-awareness 

Given the fact he doesn't know what an encyclopedia is, I'm guessing the latter.
 

Genuine question - City get a lot of stick these days for failing to fill their stadium, however they were averaging close to 30K when they were in the third division. Why have they not been able to attract fans with all their superstars and success?

Think part of the objective is to have competition at every position. If this happens, we will be set at the #6 and will have a real crowd at #8 with McGinn, Luiz, Sanson (and even Ramsey). Have to assume one of them will be moved on. 

I'm am quite connected to the Indian football circles and don't think the project ever got off the ground. In fairness, Villa are not the only foreign club to march into India talking a big game, but very few have been able to cement strong roots there. 

There are only two ways to grow a club's presence in a foreign country - win trophies or sign a player from that country. All the marketing and development activities will make little difference. As an example Leicester with its Thai owners and a lot of activation across Thailand have failed to really create a following in that country. 

10 hours ago, Ponky said:

I don't think there's much doubt AEG will start. With the arrival of Buendia and Bailey, Smith will need to be careful to keep AEG and Traore happy and confident as back ups. 

Dropping Anwar from the team at this point, especially if Buendia is out, would send a poor message to those guys I think. 

As frustrating as he is much of the time, he was our main X-factor player last session without Grealish, and Smith will be reluctant to change too much too quickly. 

What message does it send to the squad when players are not being chosen on merit.  Young has had a really good preseason, Anwar has be been mediocre.

According to Transfermkt his contract ends Dec 2021, so doubt we will ever see him in our strip again.

I feel we have the players for a top half finish. It's really up to Smith and his staff to get the tactics right. 

2 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Smith needs to be brave here. 

Do no play 4-4-2 just to get Ings and Watkins in the same team. 

I'm afraid you'll have to bench one of them. 

Agree with this. Also needs to start Young ahead of El Ghazi.

Love how he crashes the goal. If he plays, he will bag a couple of goals simply from  his  movement.

Didn't think the formation we played in the first half today worked. 

Just now, Condimentalist said:

I'd be playing him ahead of El Ghazi next week for sure 

Came on here to write just that. Hopefully Smith has a ruthless streak in him.

What formation did we play after the 60th minute?  We were much better than with the 4-4-2 or 4-2-2-2 we played until then. Worry Watkins and Ings won't work

I'm guessing he's been promised matches. See him rotating in and giving Konsa and Cash periodic rest.  Might mean Guilbert is off.

With Tuanzebe we now have the minimum we need.  Any other signings will be a bonus.

16 hours ago, useless said:

There's a good chance that Sinisalo, Dominic Revan, Bridge, Tyreik Wright, and Archer will go out on loan injuries allowing, and possibly Brad Young, Aaron Ramsey and Raikhy, maybe Campton-Sturridge as well. I think we will keep Chukwuemeka around the first team for now, not sure about Philogene-Bidace.

A loan move would probably be the best thing for Wesley, and despite his injury I wouldn't be surprised if someone took a chance on Davis as he should be back around October. Hourihane I think we will sell as he's in the last year of his contract

Feel the likes of Carney, JPB, J.Ramsey and Bogarde will be part of the first team for now and will go on loan in January if they fail to get adequate minutes

Congratulations to Dougie. Hope it will boost his confidence.

I watched a few of Brazil's matches and felt Douglas was very pedestrian and lacked any sort of cutting edge.  He is still a longway from the form he was in during Project Restart.